


Healers make the worst patients

by UnCoquelicot



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Love Confessions, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Tension, and there was only one bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-24 01:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30064551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnCoquelicot/pseuds/UnCoquelicot
Summary: “Master Katara, with all due respect, I think you should sleep the rest of the day.”“I can’t, I have to take care of Zuko,” she answers weakly. Her head is still spinning and she can feel a bruise already forming on her backside, where she’s sure she hit the floor harshly. “I can’t leave his side,” she implores before the servants get the idea to carry her away.The girl holding her shoulders gives her a look, but is stopped from protesting when Zuko says, “Put her on my bed. I’ll make sure she rests.”--------Katara overexerts herself healing Zuko from his lightning wound, and ends up being the one needing taking care of..
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 26
Kudos: 171





	Healers make the worst patients

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I'm back!  
> I hope you like this one, it's sweeter than my last fics (well, less dark at least) so I don't really know where I stand with it...
> 
> Let me know what you think of it (pretty please)!

“Come on, Katara, I’m fine.” Zuko weakly bats her hand away and the water she’s been bending trickles on the mattress, soaking the sheets and his pants.

“Oh. Sorry,” Katara says absent-mindedly. With a flick of the wrist, the water on the bed gracefully flows back into her water skin. “I have to keep healing you, Zuko. I don’t know how much damage your sister has done.”

Zuko sighs and settles back down on his pillows, allowing her to continue waterbending on his torso. If Katara had her way, she wouldn’t ever stop healing him at all, but after three days of monitoring her friend’s health and not sleeping to ensure the wellbeing of his heart, her eyesight is starting to get blurry at the edges. She couldn’t sleep even if she wanted to, anyway. They still haven’t heard news from Aang or her brother, and she is too worried to shut her eyes.

So instead, she heals. Zuko sleeps through the nights, exhausted by his lightning wound, and Katara takes the opportunity to waterbend the pain away under the moon’s glare.

He can’t move around much, she knows. She figures she has to do the most she can so he can start walking around easily again when their friends come back from the Earth Kingdom. _If_ their friends come back.

Katara suppresses a shudder at the thought. They will be back. If the Fire Lord had won, they would have known, right? They would have gotten arrested, and the palace’s staff would not take care of them this way.

“Don’t move,” she tells him.

“I’m not moving.” His voice holds an amused accent, and Katara wonders if he can tell she can barely see straight anymore. She passed a mirror on her way to the bathroom earlier; the dark circles under her eyes and the sallow tint of her skin certainly give away the fact that she hasn’t slept in three days.

“I said _don’t move._ ”

“ _I’m not moving,”_ he tells her even though he is obviously squirming.

She pushes on his bare shoulder with her free hand and bends down closer to his torso, concentrating on the water glowing above his wound. “You’re impossible.”

“And you’re obviously exhausted. Have you been sleeping at all?” Zuko puts a hand on the one she has on his shoulder and squeezes.

“Can’t.” Katara doesn’t explain more but she knows she doesn’t need to. They both know that if the lightning hadn’t exhausted him so much, Zuko would stay up too, worrying about their friends just like she does every night. And he doesn’t need to know about the nightmares.

She bends her water back in its pouch and sits up on the bed, meeting his eyes. The disapproving look she expected is there, but he doesn’t say anything, except, “You look like shit.”

“Gee. Thanks, Zuko.” Maybe it’s because of the exhaustion, but she feels her eyes prickle a little at his remark.

“You know I didn’t mean it _that_ way, Katara. But you’re starting to look like a raccoon-ferret. You should get some sleep; I’ll stay awake in case we get a message from Aang.” He raises a hand as if to touch her, but stops it mid air.

“I’m too wound up to sleep. And you need constant monitoring.”

“I really don’t. You’ve done more than enough, I feel fine, I swear.” His tentative smile is cut short when she pokes at his ribs and he yelps in pain.

“Sure you do.”

Zuko grumbles something she doesn’t catch, and Katara bends down to pick up fresh bandages to wrap around his torso.

She helps him sit up and puts her arms around his middle, unrolling the bandages slowly. Zuko’s hands come to rest on the small of her back automatically as she presses against him for better access to his back, and she fights the blush that threatens to appear on her pallid cheeks. She hears him exhale shakily and focuses on wrapping his ribs correctly.

When the bandages arrive at his heart, Katara stops and stares at the wound.

“It’s going to scar,” she observes. “I didn’t think it would, but it’s been three days and it’s still…”

“It’s okay.”

His hands are still on her waist and she tries and fails to ignore it. She can’t meet his eyes when she says, “I’m going to try something. Stay perfectly still.”

Katara swore she would never use bloodbending again after losing control against the Southern Raider’s leader, but she remembers Zuko’s words on their way back from Yon Rha’s village. Something to do with bloodbending being used for healing purposes. She doesn’t know if she can even do it, she’s incredibly exhausted and it’s not night, but she thinks she can see how bloodbending can be used to move scar tissue around. Katara doesn’t want Zuko to get another mark, not because of her.

She gently pushes him back down on his pillows, and his hands don’t leave her waist until the last moment.

Flexing her fingers in an odd angle, she tries to feel the blood vessels and to extend her awareness to beneath his skin. She can feel Zuko’s eyes on her face, intently looking at her; he probably has figured out what she is trying to do by now.

“Tell me if it hurts,” she says. He nods, and she starts bending.

Zuko stays very still, aside from a small gasp leaving his lips. “It feels… Weird. But good. It tingles a little.”

Katara’s fingertips tingle a little too. Darkness creeps up her vision, but she can feel the bloodbending begin to work. The tissue around Zuko’s wound starts to lose its pinkish hue, and she is so relieved to see that her abilities with blood can be used for good.

She shuts her eyes, and lays her palm flat on Zuko’s torso. His heart beats incredibly fast, and she’s sure he is really excited to see she can make his wound disappear. Or maybe, despite his words, he is afraid of this power, anxious to see if she’ll fail, or damage him even more.

But her own heart slows down a little too much, exhaustion finally taking its toll on her body, and when Katara opens her eyes again, all she can see is black. A muffled “Katara?” is heard somewhere in front of her, but she can’t feel anything anymore except from a prickle in her arms and an empty sensation in her stomach.

She tries to get on her feet, and thinks she managed to get off of Zuko’s bed, but consciousness leaves her entirely before she can be sure where she is.

******

When Katara comes to, her head is throbbing and the floor under her back is hard and uncomfortable. She couldn’t even manage to aim at the carpet before fainting pathetically.

“ _Katara?!_ Let me – Let me see her, _let me go for Agni’s sake,”_ she hears Zuko yelling. Well, his chest must certainly feel better if he can manage to push so much air into his shouts.

She can feel hands on her forehead, her shoulders, her legs; she can hear the murmurs of servants buzzing around her, and Zuko’s attempts to get to her. Letting out a groan, she cracks open her eyes and sees a most surreal scene.

Two servants are holding Zuko back on his bed, keeping him from getting up and possibly injure himself in the process – she would have to thank them later. Two other servants are fretting around her, laying her head on a pillow, fetching water, feeling for a fever.

“Zuko…? What –” She isn’t sure what happened between the moment she fell and now, but her friend sure seems worried.

“Katara, are you okay?” He stops trying to get out of bed, and instead sits up as close to the edge as he can.

“I think so.” She sits up, batting the servants away. “I’m fine, you don’t have to do that,” she says to a girl holding her shoulders to help her up.

“Master Katara, with all due respect, I think you should sleep the rest of the day.”

“I can’t, I have to take care of Zuko,” she answers weakly. Her head is still spinning and she can feel a bruise already forming on her backside, where she’s sure she hit the floor harshly. “I can’t leave his side,” she implores before the servants get the idea to carry her away.

The girl holding her shoulders gives her a look, but is stopped from protesting when Zuko says, “Put her on my bed. I’ll make sure she rests.”

A guard picks her up like she weighs nothing, and lays her down delicately on Zuko’s bed, right next to him. The room is still blurry and the sounds are still a little muffled, but she can definitely see the look the servants exchange before leaving the room with a promise of coming back with food and water.

“Thank you,” she tells him when everyone else is gone.

“I don’t think you should be alone right now.” Zuko shrugs and she smiles at him.

“Your bed is really comfy,” she sighs happily, leaning on his many pillows.

He blushes a little, and tells her, “Well you’ve been sitting on it for three days, you should know.”

“Yeah but lying in it is different. I still don’t know if I can sleep, though.”

“Katara… You _just_ fainted from exhaustion. You were only out for a few minutes, it’s not enough to make up for three days of not sleeping,” he sighs disapprovingly. “I should have made sure you were sleeping before, I didn’t know you would be this careless.”

“I couldn’t. I _still_ can’t. What if your wound hurts? Or if I haven’t done enough yet?” Katara whispers fearfully. She can feel her limbs getting numb and knows she can’t fight it much longer anyway. Every time she blinks, her eyelids become heavier and heavier, and flashes of blue fire and lightning come to life in her mind’s eye.

“ _Sleep,_ ” he tells her, and puts his hand on her eyes until they close. She feels his other hand sneak down to hold hers before sleep claims her completely…

… Only to get waken up a few minutes later by Zuko’s servants bringing them food.

Zuko is whispering instructions and the girls holding the soup are doing their best to step around the bed silently, but sleep eludes Katara nonetheless. When she pushes on her arms to sit up against the headboard, Zuko glares.

“I’d really rather stay awake,” she says apologetically. A few minutes of sleep are clearly not enough, but she figures she’ll fall into a well deserved coma once their friends arrive with good news. And maybe it will even be dreamless.

“You know I’ll wake you if we get news.”

“It’s not just that, I… I’m really worried about them, but also every time I’ve tried to sleep, I was back in the arena. All I can see is Azula attacking you.” Katara stares at the blankets covering her legs, not willing to meet Zuko’s gaze. He gets them too, the nightmares. She knows he understands how it feels to be terrified of sleep. But she still feels foolish.

“I’m… Sorry,” he tells her, and extends an arm towards her, brushing her shoulders.

She feels him try to pull her to him. “Huh? What are you doing?” Her face feels hot, and she doesn’t want his pity.

“Come here.” When she struggles against his hold some more, he gruffly adds, “Come here, I want to… I want to give you a hug, don’t be so stubborn.”

A hug. Huh. Zuko, the ever so socially awkward, the not-used-to-physical-contact guy, wants to hug her. _Well I’ll be damned._

She gives in, and crawls closer to him on the bed. He bends his arm around her side and she leans her head on his shoulder, and somehow, it feels more intimate than any hug she has ever received in her life. And then Zuko starts to stroke her side, and her heart beats so fast that she definitely feels more awake now.

“I’m sorry about Azula,” he says, and his voice sounds a little strangled.

“Don’t be sorry about her, be sorry that you scared me half to death by doing something so incredibly stupid –”

“I didn’t have a choice,” he assures her. “It was either you died, or I tried redirecting the lightning.”

“No. It was either I died, or you risked leaving your country without a ruler.” Katara didn’t want to start fighting about this until Zuko felt better, but now that they are talking about it, she wants to make him understand.

“My uncle –”

“Your uncle is not the one who should be on the throne. He knows it, I know it, and _you_ know it. It’s not his destiny to be Fire Lord, it’s yours. And you risked it over… What? Over me? I’m not –”

“Don’t even say you’re not important,” he growls, and his hand on her side feels hotter than before.

“On a global scale, I’m not. Not like you, or Aang.”

Zuko doesn’t answer right away. Instead, he sighs, and hot hair comes caressing the top of her head when he leans his cheek on her hair. “I couldn’t let you die,” he murmurs, and her heart constricts.

“Yeah, well…” Katara starts weakly, feeling tears prickling behind her eyes. “How do you think I felt when you took that lightning bolt for me?”

Zuko squeezes her side, and she curls herself flush against him, crawling as close to him as she can without actually climbing on him.

“I’m sorry,” he tells her again.

They stay silent for a while. The soup has gone cold, so Zuko heats it up with his bending, and they eat, both lost in their thoughts, still flush against each other.

“The bloodbending,” Zuko tells her after a while. “I know you didn’t do it long, but I think it helped a lot. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

She thinks maybe he is telling her that to make her feel better, for having used a technique even she is afraid of, for not being able to heal him completely, for feeling utterly miserable these past three days.

“I used it so it wouldn’t scar, but I can’t do it long enough for it to work properly.”

“I really don’t mind the scar, it’s… I’m glad I got it protecting you. It’s a mark of honor.”

She lifts her head to look at him, and from her angle she can only see the sharp edge of his jaw, and the small smile tugging at his lips. “It’s still a scar, though.”

“Yes, but this one is good.” He turns his head to meet her eyes, and she can see he wants to keep it.

******

They spend the rest of the afternoon sitting up in his bed, slumped against each other, trading stories to pass the time. Zuko refuses her healing – “At least today,” he says, “stop and get some rest.” – and Katara starts to feel better. It’s nothing sleep won’t fix best, but not bending for a while and just being lazy in bed helps greatly with her fatigue.

When she stifles a yawn, Zuko makes a remark about how if it was the other way around, she would beat him into sleeping correctly, and how healers really do make the worst patients.

At this, Katara pouts, sticking out her lips to show her discontentment, and Zuko stares.

“Hem – I…” He coughs, raising his eyes and looking everywhere but at her. “I think I’ll call a servant for dinner.”

It’s only five in the afternoon, and they ate not that long ago, but Zuko can’t seem to get away fast enough as he scrambles out of the bed and to the door. He does seem to move around better, at least. Maybe her bloodbending really did the trick.

When he comes back to the bed, he sits further away from her than before, and Katara can only scowl. “I was getting used to your warmth,” she teases.

Zuko’s cheeks flush fast, and she’s sure she is sporting a similar look on her face. But she feels… Emboldened. He was the one staring at her lips right now, so she can’t be imagining things, right?

But Zuko looks almost reluctant when he crawls back to the middle of the bed to meet her, so maybe she is reading into this too much. Nevertheless, he still puts his arm back around her and tugs her closer to his side to share his warmth. Katara doesn’t feel cold; it’s the end of summer in the Fire Nation, how could she feel anything else but hot? But it’s still nice to be close to him this way.

“I’m…” Zuko begins, but then stops talking.

After a few seconds of silence, Katara prods. “What is it?”

“I don’t know if I should say that, because you’ve been exhausting yourself over healing me for days, so maybe you don’t see it the same way, but… I’m really glad about how things turned out,” he confesses. “I’m _happy._ It’s probably weird, but I’m really happy for having jumped in front of that lightning bolt.”

“You’re right. I don’t see it the same way.” Her tone is cold; Katara doesn’t understand how he could be happy about being bedridden for days, how he could be fine with almost dying at the hand of his own sister.

“You wouldn’t get it, of course. You’ve never had to see your sibling threaten the life of someone you – someone important,” he says darkly, and she detaches herself from his side, sitting back on her knees to look at him properly.

“I _do_ understand, Zuko. I’ve had to see people die, for years. People I loved, people who tried to protect me. My own mother sacrificed herself to save my life. How do you think it made me feel, seeing you do the same thing?” Katara raises her voice a little at the end, only to keep herself from crying.

“I know, I’m sorry, I…”

“Stop saying you’re sorry,” she warns. “It won’t change the fact that you were reckless, and that you almost died, and –” Her breathing is short and stars begin to appear in her vision again, so she stops talking. Zuko takes the opportunity to take her hand and tug her closer to him, sitting up too.

“I know, I know, I promise it won’t happen again,” he whispers and puts his forehead against hers.

“I just don’t understand _why_ ,” she murmurs back, eyes closing.

Zuko’s hand comes to rest at the side of her face, cupping her cheek, and she can feel his nose brushing hers. Katara thinks she can hear him breathe “ _This is why,_ ” but the blood pounding in her ears blocks her from hearing anything else than her own heart.

His lips crash against hers, and his other hand circles her back, pulling her flush against him.

_Oh._

So Katara _hasn’t_ been imagining things. Her heart beats fast and hard, and she timidly kisses him back, basking in his shaking, relieved sigh.

She feels warm. Too warm. Overwhelmed, and shaking, and… She is kissing Zuko. _She is kissing Zuko for Spirits’ sake._

Katara hears him groan when she pulls back a bit, breathing hard. Zuko looks a little dazed, and his cheeks are red all over, but his eyes hold a frightened look that doesn’t suit him at all.

“What was that?” She breathes, incapable of forming a coherent thought.

“What I was trying to say earlier is…” Zuko tells her, and his voice trembles a little. It’s the first time she’s seen him this shy. “I’m – I’ve been having these… Feelings. Lately.” He doesn’t meet her eyes when he says, “for you.”

She likes him too, she realizes. Of course she does. How could she not? How could she not want this boy, who sacrificed himself for her, who begged for her forgiveness, who helped her in her darkest moments? Who kissed her senseless not a minute ago?

“Can you say something?” He asks desperately; his hands tremble a little. “I shouldn’t have said anything, and I shouldn’t have kissed you, I’m sorry, I… Forget it,” he finally tells her when she stays mute.

“No, I –”

“It’s okay. You don’t feel the same. I shouldn’t have sprung this on you like that.” Zuko’s head is bent low and his hair keeps her from seeing his expression, but she’s sure it is not good. So she takes his hand, forcing him to meet her eyes again.

“I kissed you back, didn’t I?” She whispers. “It’s taken me a moment to realize it, but I think I do like you, too.”

The smile Zuko gives her is so bright, it could light up the entire room. Feeling bold again, Katara bends down at his level and cups his scarred cheek in her hand, looking into his eyes. There’s a question in them, and she answers it by touching her lips to his slowly.

His hands are quick to embrace her again, one landing in her hair and the other around her waist, tugging her closer to him and deepening the kiss.

It feels nice. More than nice. And now Katara can name the fear she felt when Zuko jumped in front of death for her. She can name the betrayal she felt when he sided with his sister in Ba Sing Se. She can name all of the confusing feelings she’s had concerning this boy in her arms.

A wave of warmth and love enfolds her and she feels tear threaten to spill the second she will open her eyes. The exhaustion really sets her emotions on edge today, and it’s too late to hold back the flood when she sits back.

“Hey, what…” Zuko wipes down some of her tears with his thumbs, cupping her face. “What is it? Are you okay?”

“More than okay. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cry, it’s just the lack of sleep. It’s making me really sensitive.” Katara laughs a little at that, thinking back to the Ember Island players calling her a tearbender.

Zuko smiles, relief flooding his face, and kisses her again. And again. And trails his lips slowly all over her face, kissing the tears away.

Until the door slams open and a too familiar voice exclaims, “We’re back! And we –”

Katara and Zuko freeze, still in each other’s embrace, and look at the door, where Sokka, Aang and Suki stare at them with wide eyes. Behind them, Toph snickers. “I knew it,” she simply says.

“ _Hey! Get away from my sister,_ ” Sokka shouts, and jumps on Zuko. Or tries to, at least, before Suki holds him back with an arm twist.

Katara can find it in herself to care that all of their friends just saw them. They’re back. They’re back, and alive, and seemingly fine, and –

She jumps on them before she can feel herself moving, crushing them in a hug. Fresh tears spill on her cheeks, ruining Zuko’s work, but she doesn’t care, and doesn’t try to hold them back. Relief and joy fill her chest and she doesn’t release them when Toph grumbles, “There, there, Sugar Queen, you can let go now.”

Zuko gets up and comes behind her, not hesitating to circle them in a hug of his own. Katara can feel his breath in her hair and she doesn’t think she’s ever been happier than right now, with her family safe in her arms and the boy she cares for at her back.

For all his angry earlier words, Sokka doesn’t tell Zuko to back off again, instead tugging them both closer and murmuring, “We won. Aang took Ozai’s bending away. We won. It’s over.”

“ _It’s over,”_ she whispers back.

“You look terrible, by the way,” Sokka tells her between happy tears. Katara laughs, and cries, and pokes his side, making him yelp and try to get out of the group hug.

It really _is_ over. Finally.

And it’s only just beginning, too.

**Author's Note:**

> If you would be so kind as to spare a comment, good fellows, I'd be delighted. A small plea for your thoughts?


End file.
